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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hi everyone! Yeah! It's almost Friday. My daughter's half-birthday is tomorrow--since she has a late-December birthday, we've always had a mini celebration for her half-birthday. To celebrate, on Saturday, we're taking the kids to a nearby amusement park. I'm thinking someone is going to need a long nap (and I'm not talking about the kids). ;)

Nope, not food. The challenge is to make a CAS project with arrows. Instead of using traditional arrows, I went with a series of really large arrows:

It's not patterned paper in the background--I made that by stamping through a digital mask. I used the Giant Chevron Knock-Out by Splendid Fiins and cut the mask in half. Then, I used a digital mist brush to create the pastel ombre.

After I printed the panel, I sprayed the paper with a real iridescent mist to give it some shimmer. I stamped the sentiment from Kelly Purkey/Simon Says Stamp and embossed it in gold. Here's a close-up:

If you would like to play along with this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge, the winner will receive a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp:

Monday, June 24, 2013

The challenge for Round 5 was to make four cards in four different card styles using coordinating colors. Phew! It was a CRAZY weekend working on cards. I got very little sleep all weekend, but in the end, I perservered and made four cards I'm proud of.

For my four card styles, I picked Fun/Cute, CAS/Graphic, Shabby Chic/Vintage, and Freestyle/Collage. If you have any questions about what I did, feel free to drop me an e-mail. :)

First up is the Fun/Cute card:

Oh, he just cracks me up (or quacks me up, as my 7-year-old would say). Here are a few highlights about the card:

The duck (Starving Artistamps) and hat (Lawn Fawn) were colored with Copics and fussy cut (those legs were tough!)

I made the speech bubble digitally and masked off and stamped the sentiment (CAS-ual Fridays)

I didn't have the right patterned papers, so I made my own. I made the gingham patterned paper in Photoshop using a template. I also altered the polka dot paper digitally--it was yellow on yellow--but I wanted to bring in the aqua.

Here's a close-up:

Next up is the Clean and Simple/Graphic card:

This style is definitely in my comfort zone. While I normally make a lot of CAS hybrid cards, this card doesn't have any digital elements. Here are a few highlights:

I die-cut the Memory Box heart six times and filled in the the negative space in the white die-cut with the various coordinating colors.

Since the card is graphic, I went with fully-saturated colors instead of patterned papers like the other styles.

I finished the card with a sentiment from Technique Tuesday.

Here's a close-up:

Next up, is the shabby chic/vintage card:

I'm not going to lie, shabby chic does not come naturally for me. I wanted to take on the challenge and did a lot of homework studying blogs and back issues of Paper Crafts.

This vintage image made me laugh (is the mom in the back seat and the kids are in the front seat??). I thought the cheekiness reflected my style well. Here are the details:

The vintage circle (Pretty Little Studios) and sentiment are both digitally created. I altered the colors in the illustration slightly to reflect the coordinating colors.

I altered the scalloped Chic Tags die cut by flipping it over and misting the backside. I also whitewashed the wooden tag.

I used six different patterned papers from four different manufacturers (SEI, Webster's Pages, Fancy Pants, and BasicGrey).

Here's a close-up:

Lastly, I made a Freestyle/Collage card:

This card was the most fun to put together. :) Here are a few details:

I altered three of the embellishments with paint (the flower and wood veneer mini frame) and spray mist (the canvas oval).

As part of the Gallery Idol contest, there's a final vote for the winner. If you like my cards, I would *really* appreciate it if you would take a moment to vote for me. You can click on the link at the top of the sidebar or go HERE, click on my cards, and vote. You do have to register, but if you have already registered, you can simply long in. Making it to the Top 5 feels like I've already won. But, winning would be the icing on the cake. :)

I wanted to throw out a special thank you to my husband and my in-laws for watching the kids and the moral support during the Gallery Idol contest. Thank you to everyone who has voted for my cards, given advice, and been a great listening ear. I have the best crafty friends! It's been such an honor to be in this contest.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! I think I spent almost the entire weekend crafting up a storm for the last round of the Gallery Idol contest. But, it's time for another Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge.

For the Picture Perfect challenge, you'll need to use your Paper Smooches stamps to create a card based on this inspiration photo:

I must have looked through my stamp sets 20 times to figure out what kind of image I could repeat. I saw the bunny stamp from the Squeaky Clean set and used it to make this card:

It's like bunny hurdles! I think the bunny stamp is one of my favorite Paper Smooches stamps. :)

I started by stamping the candles from the Hullabaloo set, and then I stamped and colored the bunnies. The "HOPPY" is made using Alphadots and the "birthday" is from Sentiment Sampler.

Here's a close-up of the little bunnies:

If you would like to join this week's SPARKS challenge, you can link up your projects HERE. I hope you'll join in! Be sure to visit the rest of the team's blogs to see what they have created:

Create a CAS project with panels or elements that extend past the edge of the project.

I started making one card, and it looked terrible (beyond terrible--more like heinous). On to plan B, which was this card:

When I was younger, I remembered hearing good news and getting on the phone to share the news with my friends. I suppose it's the same now, except my phone is a little different. We haven't had a land line in several years, and I was surprised my 7-year-old knew what the phone on the card was (she said she saw one on The Brady Bunch). ha ha

I started by stamping the sentiment from the CAS-ual Friday Stamps Ka-Boom set. The inside was colored with an Inktense pencil and kept it simple. I sewed across the panel with pink thread.

Next, I die-cut the Ring Me die in some new American Crafts paper and gold cardstock. For the center heart, I painted and inked a wood veneer heart. Here's a close-up:

The cord was an issue. I used some Stiffen Stuff on gold cord I wrapped around a pencil, and heated it with my heat gun. In retrospect, I should have used a dowel and heated the cord on a low heat in the oven.

The receiver does come off the phone, too. It's a fun interactive element!

If you want to play along, the winner of this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge will win some CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Hi everyone! Eek! I still cannot believe I'm in the Top 10 of the Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol contest. Thank you!!

The challenge for Round 4 was to use exactly 10 embellishments on a card. While it was definitely a challenge, I was excited about this theme. I knew right away I wanted to make another freestyle/collage card (like THIS card or THIS card).

I decided to focus on a color scheme. It took a while to choose the colors, but I settled on this color scheme from The Sweetest Occasion. I focused on the three colors on the left.

I don't have too many embellishments in mustard, grey, and poppy, but I decided to alter some of the embellishments to get the right color. Here is a shot of embellishments before I altered them (there are a couple in the picture I didn't end up using):

I pulled together ink, spray ink, alcohol inks, spray paint, craft paint, glitter cardstock, and stamps, and I went to work altering the items. When I got done, my card looked like this:

I started with the background paper. To make it, I simply made a grey rectangle in Photoshop, duplicated it, and layered the rectangles to make stripes.

For the embellishments, I focused on shapes and textures. I would have loved to have added two more elements, but I needed to stick to the 10 items. :) Here is what I used:

I have to share that the transparency banner was not what I had planned. I had a similar one, but just before I adhered it to the card, I lost it. Argh!! After spending 20 minutes looking for it, I gave up and cut down a different transparency. I'm sure it will turn up in a Lego bucket or something. ;)

Here's a close-up:

Before I layered the elements, I created a sentiment strip. Using a sentiment from Pixel's & Co., I printed the sentiment on vellum. I could have easily printed the sentiment directly onto the paper, but I liked the softness of the vellum. Here's a close-up:

As part of the Gallery Idol contest, there's a vote for the Top 5. If you like my card, I would really appreciate it if you vote for my card! You can click on the link at the top of the sidebar or go HERE, click on the image, and vote. You do have to register, but if you have already registered, you can simply log in. Thank you so much!!

The theme is pretty broad, but I decided to go nautical again with this card:

Isn't that a sweet sentiment? This card is one of those CAS cards that looks easy but actually involved about 25 steps. I'll spare you all the details. ;)

The little scene in the center was made with different elements from Paislee Press's Daydreamer kit (the boat, the wave, the ring). The sentiment was made by using a circle text path around the (almost circular) ring. I also shrunk some digital map/sea patterned paper, printed it, and trimmed it down to cover the sails. Here's a close-up:

Aren't the map sails cute?

I finished the card by layering die-cut cardstock. I have terrible depth perception, and I didn't get the top layer even the first time. I peeled it up, but I think I warped the paper when I did that. *sigh* I did consider trying to find another color of cardstock (it was my only sheet), but I decided to leave it alone. My husband will get a warped card, and he'll still like it (at least he better!). ha ha

If you want to play along with this week's CAS-ual Friday Challenge, the winner will receive some CAS-ual Friday Stamps:

Monday, June 10, 2013

I'm moving on to Round 3, and the challenge this time was to make your own stamped background. I'm not going to lie...when I saw this theme, I was pretty anxious. The last time I created my own stamped background that was not in Photoshop was...well, I can't even remember. But, I kept reminding myself that it's just stamping, and I do that. :)

Before I share the process, I wanted to show you the final card:

Last Friday after I saw the theme, I flipped through my inspiration files and stamps. I was inspired by THIS picture. I found a circle stamp from the Simon Says Stamp Circle Friends set, and began picking the colors.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that the sheet above was one of five test sheets to pick the colors--I must have tried about 50 inks. The blues, green, and yellow look summery to me, and I like how they looked when they overlapped.

I moved on to stamping the background. There was some testing to figure out the amount of overlap needed (seven lines overlapping for the rows and three lines for the columns in case you were curious). To make the lines straight, I used a stamp positioner. Even with that tool, I held my breath every time I stamped. ;) Here's what the sheet looked like when I was done:

Doesn't it look like a quilt? You can see in the top left where I dropped my block at the end of stamping (argh!!).

After all that work, I used a CAS design. Here's a close-up:

I used a digital brush for the frame around the sentiment from Rhonna Designs and typed in the sentiment. I added a tiny die-cut star using the Holiday Shapes die (love that die!). The card was finished off with a strip of the same aqua glitter cardstock at the top and some Caribbean twine from The Twinery.

As part of the Gallery Idol contest, there's a vote for the Top 10. If you like my card, I would really appreciate it if you vote for me! You can click on the link at the top of the sidebar or go HERE, click on the image, and vote. You do have to register (it's a quick process), but if you have already registered, you can simply log in. Thank you so much!

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for the support! Have a great week.

I used the horizontal version of the sketch and went with a rustic theme:

SPARKS is shifting to a CAS emphasis, so I did a pretty CAS take on the sketch.

I started by stamping the yellow flower from Bold Blooms and layering the smaller flower with foam tape. I finished the flower by adding a leaf from Leafy Greens. For the background, I simply cut a piece of burlap and sewed it to the card base. Here's a close-up:

I apologize for the blurriness of the sentiment...the macro worked great for the flower.ha ha I finished the card off with a sentiment from Simply Said and a mix of stickpins.

If you would like to join this week's SPARKS challenge, you can link up your projects HERE. I hope you'll join in! Be sure to visit the rest of the team's blogs to see what they have created:

Thursday, June 6, 2013

So, banners or flags on your projects. Easy, right? Instead of a string of banners, I made one jumbo banner:

I ran across THESE banners that are free downloads. I loved the images, but I seldom use PDF files. When I saw the CAS-ual Fridays assignment, I decided to figure out how to convert a PDF into a cut file for my Cameo. I found THIS tutorial, and it was surprisingly easy.

I first die-cut the banner in orange, but then decided to die-cut it in purple. I never put purple on cards, so I decided to switch it up. :) Here's a close-up of the sweet sentiment:

A little stitching, a little inking, a little twine, and I was done.

If you would like to enter this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, the winner will receive a gift certificate to Ellen Hutson:

Monday, June 3, 2013

Hi everyone! I'm excited (and a pretty nervous) to share my card for the Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol Round 2. The card from Round 1 can be found HERE. I've seen the other entries for this round, and wowee! I'm humbled to be in the Top 20!

On Friday, when I found out the theme, my head was so scattered about how to make a card for defining dad. I came up with five or six ideas, made a card for one, and decided it wasn't right. I went back to the proverbial drawing board. After flipping through my files, I ran across a digital journaling card from Echo Park with a sentiment. I used the inspiration to make this card:

When I started this card, I had the sentiment in mind and knew I could use one of the bacon stamps from Sizzle On. After playing around with the elements, I couldn't figure out how to get them to work together. Then it hit me to make a rescue plane--I know my dad has come to the rescue on several occasions. ;)

I stamped and colored the plane from Unity and the bacon stamp. After fussy cutting and Xacto-ing the plane, I pinched the stamped banner lines together to turn the bacon into a banner. The bacon should have been flush with the bar, but since it didn't look quite right, I let it trail behind. Here's a close-up:

Yes, I was holding my breath while cutting out the plane and banner! Ha ha

Once I had the plane done, I created a scene in Photoshop. I started with digital patterned paper from the Seafoam collection, and adjusted the hue and the lightness. For the clouds, I recolored and reshaped them, and then layered them on the digital paper. It was a fun way to make my own background paper.

As part of the Gallery Idol contest, there's a vote for the Top 15. If you like my card, I would really appreciate it if you voted for me! You can click on the link at the top of the sidebar or go HERE, click on the image, and vote. You do have to register, but you won't get spammed or anything. :) Thank you so much!!

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for your support! Have a great week.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

I made it to the Top 20 of Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol contest. Yeah!!! On Thursday night, I pulled up the Paper Crafts Connection website on my phone and had it ready to go for Friday morning. As soon as I woke up, I checked my phone, and then had to contain my excitement so I didn't wake up my kids. Yeah, it didn't work--I woke up my son. :)

So....here's the card:

It was one of those never-ending cards that I worked on a few minutes here and a few minutes there over several days. The circles are die-cut tissue paper, and I added a few die-cut stars and sequins. For the sentiment, the "Magical" is a digital sentiment from Robyn Meierotto, and I added the rest of the text.

As part of the contest, I'll be sharing my Round 2 card tomorrow and asking for your vote. Eek! I'm excited and nervous about it. :)